Combined forming and thread-rolling mechanism for caps



COMBINED FORM ING AND THREAD ROLLING MECHANISM FOR CAPS Filed March 23, 1927 2 shee is sheet 1 Feb. 18, 1930. w. CAMERON COMBINED FORMING AND THREAD ROLLING MECHANISM FOR CABS Filed March 23, 1927 2 Shjqets-Sheet 2 Patented Feb. 18, 1930 UNITED STATES WILLIAM CAMERON, OF CHICAGO, ILLINOIS, ASSIGNOR '10 CAMERON CAN MACHINERY I CO., OF CHICAGO, ILLINOIS, A CORPORATION--OF ILLINOIS COMBINED FORMING AND THREAD-ROLLING MECHANISM FOR CAPS Application filed March 23, 1927. Serial No. 177,525.

- forming and cap thread rolling machine/ Heretofore in manufacturing caps where in addition tothe cap forming operation a subsequent operation such as rolling the thread on the cap which took a much longer time than the forming operation was involved, much delay and lost motion was experienced between the two operations because the mechanism for forming the cap and the mechanism for performing the subsequent operation were not connected together for continuous and automatic operation. a

It is, therefore, the principal object of this invention to provide a mechanism for manufacturing caps in which the caps discharged from the forming mechanism are automatically fed to the mechanism for subsequently operating upon them such as thethread rolling mechanism.

The cap forming mechanism is for mechanical reasons ordinarily capable of turning out unfinished caps'mu'ch faster than a single thread rolling or like device can complete its work on the. caps thus turned out. g

It is accordingly another object of this invention to-provide a construction whereby the caps fromthe cap forming mechanism are fed automatically to a plurality of cap thread rollingor like devices, thus enabling the forming mechanism to be run at its best speed and the entire combination to be run without any lost motion or delay between the cap forming and the cap thread rolllng devices. f

It is also an important ob ect of this lnvention to provide an efiicient feeding mecha nism for receiving caps or the like from one I mechanism and distributing them in prede termined proportions-to a plurality of devices adapted to erform a subsequent op-- eration on said caps.

Other and further ob ects of this nvention will be apparent as the same becomes better understood from an examination of the specification and claims in connection with the accompanying drawings,wherein:

Fig. Us a fragmentary longitudinal elevar tion partly in section illustrating a combined cap forming and-cap thread rolling mechanism embodying this invention,

Fig. 2 is a plan View partly in section ofthe same,

' Fig. 3 is an enlarged fragmentary detail adapted to turn out sheet metal caps of substantial cylindrical form and closed at one end. An example of this general type of machine is disclosed in my former Letters Patent No. 1,477 ,240 granted December 11, 1923. The caps are discharged from the dies onto a chute 6.

In this instance the caps which are turned out by the forming machine 5qare, as previously stated, of cylindrical form and closed at one end andrequire a subsequent thread rolling operation to beperformed upon them. The thread rolling. operation requires considerably more time than does the blanking and forming operation and for this reason a single thread rolling device cannot ordinarily take care of the normal output of the forming mechanism. Accordingly -I .provide' a plurality, in this illustration two, of thread rolling machines 7 and 8, respectively, and

connect them as will be-hereinafter described with the forming mechanism in such a manner that the caps discharged by the latter mechanism inunfinished form will be automatically delivered in proper predetermined nism to the two thread rolling machines I provide a conveyor including a frameprovided with vertical elements 9 and 11 sup;.

ported near the base of the respective thread rolling machines 7 and 8. The frame of the conveyor also includes a pair of spaced parallel longitudinal elements 12 secured to the upper ends of the elements 9 and 11 and extending to the frame 13 of the forming machine, the ends of said elements 12 being secured to a transverse rod 14 extending across "an opening 15 in said frame. A conveyor belt 16 extends from within the frame 13 beneath the chute 6 out of the opening 15 and between the elements 12 and is carried at one end by a driving roller 17 transversely journaled in the frame 13 and at its other end by a transverse roller 18 carried. by said elements 12. A third roller'19 is provided intermediate the ends of the belt 16 is carried bythe elements 12,for supporting the upper portion of said belt and divides said portion into a horizontal portion 21 and a gradually sloping portion 22 leading through the opening 15 from the chute 6. A fourth roller 23 is rigidly secured on a transverse shaft 24 journaled in the frame 13 just inside the -opening 15 and acts to maintain tension on the belt 16 by hearing against the lower por-' tion of said belt.

26, respectively, extending to the edge of said conveyor whence they are adapted .to receive sequent operation.

caps upon which they are to perform a sub- In order to apportion'the-caps to the two ythread rolling machines 7 and 8 in accordance with their respective capacities which in this case are the same, I provide a distributing mechanism which will now be described. The caps being. delivered to the conveyor are carried substantially along the center line thereof at longitudinally spaced intervals. These intervals will be substantially the same regardless of fluctuations in "the speed of the discharge of the caps because the driving roller 17 of the conveyor being mounted on the drive shaft of. said machine, said shaft will vary the speed ofthe conveyor in the same proportion as that-of the, niachine- A disk 27 is rigidly-'m'ounted on the shaft 24 and is provided on'its side face with a cam surface 28, the same being depressed for one-half of each rotation of the shaft 24 and elevated for the remainingonehalf. A lever 20 on a shaft 29 journaled in a bracket 31 secured to the frame 13 is provided with a roller 32 at its outer end which ,is held up against the surface 28 by a spring 33. A second lever 30 also rigid onthe shaft 29 is connected by means of a rod 34 to'an arm 35 secured at the upper end of a shaft 36 journaled in a bracket 40 onthe rod 14. A movable guide 37 for the caps is secured to the lower end of the shaft 36. The guide 37 iscomparatively wider at itsintakefend 38 than at its discharge end 39- and is adapted-to receive the caps. between its converging sides 41 as said caps are carried along bythe conveyor. The guide 37 is connected at its intake end 38 with the shaft 36 soas to oscil-' late with said shaft to move the discharge end 39 from one side of the conveyor to the other upon each oscillation of said shaft. Since thecam surface 28 is designed to elevate the roller 32 for the same length of time that it depresses said roller the oscillations of the shaft 36 will be such that the guide 37 will deliver caps in substantially equal numbers on each side of the conveyor belt.

Thev conveyor belt is divided beyond the guide 37 by means of a partition 42 into two 'passages 43 and 44, respectively, the passage 44 leading to the chute 25 of the first thread rolling machine 7 and the passage 43 leading beyond the machine 7 to the chute 26 of the second thread rolling machine 8.

Suitable side walls 45 are supported alongthe edges of the upper portion of the belt so as to prevent the caps from falling off the sides of said belt. 4

In operation the forming mechanism is allowed to run at its regular speed discharging caps to the chute 6 whence they are dropped on to the center of the conveyor. Since the conveyor is driven from the main shaft of the forming mechanism the spacing of the caps on the conveyor will be substantially constant regardless of any variations in speed of said mechanism. The guide 37 will oscillate as previously described to deflect the caps from the center of the conveyor, the caps passing out of the discharge end 39 of said guide to form two' transversely spaced parallel lines of caps one near each edge of the conveyor insteadof the one" single line of caps at the center of the conveyor. Since the discharge end 39 of the guide 37 is held the same length of time near one edge of the conveyor as the other, the two lines of caps resulting there-from w1ll\ be of substantially equal numbers. I Oneiof the two lines of caps thus formed will passfito the cap thread rolling machine 7 andthe other line of caps will pass to the other thread rolling machine 8 where the threads are automatically rolled on the caps.

With-the may be .completedat a high-rate ofspeed, the two thread rolling machines by their com-- bined operations keeping up with the capacity' of the cap forming machine while the latter is run at unreduced speed.

I am aware that many changes may be foregoing arrangement the caps 1 made without departing from the principles of this iilvention and I do not wish tobe limited to the details shown or described.

I claim I 1. The combination of a cap forming mechanism adapted to discharge unfinished caps, a plurality of thread rolling devices of predetermined capacities adapted to roll threads on said caps, and means for automatically dividing the caps discharged from said mechanism and feeding them to said devices in accordance with their capacities.

2. The combination of a cap forming mechanism adapted to dischar e unfinished caps, a plurality of thread rolling devices adapted to roll threads on said caps, and means for automatically dividing the caps discharged from said mechanism and feeding them to said devices in predetermined amounts.

.3. In a mechanism of the class described, the combination of a conveyor, a mechanism adapted to discharge unfinished articles to said conveyor and operatively connected to "the conveyor for driving the same, a plurality of devices adapted to receive said articles from the conveyor and perform a subsequent operation upon the articles and means for dividing said articles as they pass along .saidconveyor and for directing the articles in predetermined proportions to said devices.

4. In a mechanism of the class described, the combination of a conveyor, mechanism adapted todischarge unfinished articles tov dividing said line of articles into a plurality movement of the conveyor the articles are,

carried thereon, a plurality of devices adapted to receive. articles from the conveyor and perform a subsequent operation upon the articles, means for apportioning the articles on the conveyor for the respective devices,

and means for delivering the .articles thus apportioned to each of the respective devices in a plane at an angle to that of the conveyor.

.8. In a mechanism of the class described,

the combination of a conveyor, cap forming mechanism adapted to discharge unfinished caps tosaid conveyor whereby upon the continuous movement of the conveyor thecaps are carried thereon, a, plurality of devices adapted to receive caps from the conveyor and perform a subsequent operationupon the caps, means for apportioning the caps on the conveyor for the respective devices, and means for delivering the caps thus apportioned to each of the respective devices in a plane at an angle to that of the conveyor;

In witness of the foregoing I aflix my signature. 'WILL'IAM CAMERON.

said conveyor whereby upon the continuous movement of the conveyor the articles are carried in line on, the conveyor,.a plurality of devices adapted to receive said articles from the conveyor and perform a subsequent operation upon the articles, and a guide member movable over said conveyor for dividing said line of articles into a plurality of lines of predetermined numbers of articles.

5. In a mechanism of the class described, the'combination of a conveyor, a mechanism adapted to discharge unfinished articles to said conveyor, means for driving said mechanism and simultaneously operating said conveyor, a plurality of devices adapted to receive said articles from the conveyor and perform a subsequent operation upon them,

' and means operablein accordance with thev travel of the conveyor for dividing said articles as they pass along the conveyor and for directing the articles -inpredetermined proportions to said devices. 6.-In a mechanism of the class described;

the combination of a" conveyor, mechanism. adapted'to discharge unfinished articles to said conveyor whereby upon the continuous IrIovement of the conveyor the articles are carried in line, on the conveyor, a plurality of devices adapted to receive said articles from the conveyor and perform a subsequent operation upon the articles, and a movable guide member driven by said conveyor for 

